Antifoam Development for Eliminating Flammability Hazards and Decreasing Cycle Time in the Defense Waste Processing Facility

Abstract

A special thanks to Alex Nikolov and Darsh Wasan of the Illinois Institute of Technology for their expertise in foam and antifoamers, in helping us to develop the research program, to evaluate the results and to identify candidates for testing, and especially for introducing us to Kalman Koczo of Momentive Performance Materials who supplied us with the Momentive™ Y-17112.A special thanks to Gita Golcar for her identification of most of the antifoam candidates that we tested, including Evonik Surfynol ® MD20.We had great support from Meagan Kinard, Katherine Miles, Austin Coleman, and Daniel Jones in helping us to set up, develop R&D directions, perform the experiments, and so much more in finishing these tasks.Thanks to Mark Fowley and Andy Foreman for designing and installing the portable table that the RC1 equipment is assembled onto.Thanks to Christopher Verst for calculating radiation dose approximations and operating the J.L Shepherd Model 484 Co-60 gamma irradiator.Thanks to Mason Clark of DWPF Engineering for his support in the planning and execution of this testing.We had great support from our interns, Jackie Do from the University of Georgia and Maggie Hansen from Clemson University. Jackie and Maggie did a great job in helping prepare the equipment, procedures, R&D directions, and iControl software for the antifoam experiments.